Jim Banting
Assistant Vice-President, Innovations, Partnerships & Entrepreneurshipjim.banting@utoronto.ca
Jim Banting leads the University of Toronto’s (U of T's) Innovation, Partnership & Entrepreneurship Office (IPO). He oversees programs that connect researchers, industry partners, investors and entrepreneurs across the University and its partner networks. This mandate includes the advancement of strategic collaborations, support for research translation and commercialization, and the growth of U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Jim brings experience from a senior role supporting academic innovation, research partnerships, and technology commercialization, alongside industry experience in the Canadian and U.S. biotech sectors spanning partnerships, licensing, and M&A. His work has supported the development of sector partnerships, the launch of new venture programs, and the expansion of industry engagement strategies. Most recently, he held a leadership position at Queen’s University that included oversight of partnerships, technology transfer, and high-performance computing. Additionally, he is an experienced entrepreneur having co-founded a life science university spin-off that was later acquired by a U.S. specialty pharmaceutical company.
Jim holds a PhD in Pharmacology from Queen’s University. He has contributed to regional, provincial, and national initiatives focused on research partnerships, innovation strategy and emerging technology platforms.
Chief Operating Officerrenee.brost@utoronto.ca
Renée Brost serves as Chief Operating Officer, providing strategic and operational leadership across the division's finance, business operations and systems. In this role, she oversees Research Financial Reporting and Audit, Budget and Operations, Systems and Web Tools and Research Administration Education and Outreach. As a member of the VPRI executive team, Renée leads the division's operational strategy, resource planning, financial stewardship and business modernization efforts as well as enterprise-wide operational improvement initiatives that support the University's research and innovation mission. She also works closely with academic and administrative leaders across the University to strengthen research administration, enhance institutional effectiveness, and advance the systems, processes, and financial frameworks that support research excellence. Renee was awarded the Chancellor’s Award, Emerging Leader in 2020. Prior to joining the VPRI executive team, first as Chief Administrative Officer, Renée contributed to the U of T community as Manager, Finance and Administration at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and as Research Manager in the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research. Before joining U of T she held various technical research and laboratory operations roles in industry, government and academia.
Timothy Chan
Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiativestcy.chan@utoronto.ca
Timothy Chan serves as the Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives leading the identification, assessment, prioritization and support of strategic, cross-divisional, excellence driven, institutional initiatives. He works with the Vice-Presidential and Provostial portfolios and academic divisions to coordinate on resources from external agencies and organizations.
Timothy Chan is the Canada Research Chair in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health, and Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He is an affiliate of the Vector Institute, University Health Network, and Unity Health Toronto. He has served as the Director of the Centre for Analytics and AI Engineering, the Director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering. and the Associate Director, Research and Thematic Programming of the Data Sciences Institute.
Professor Chan’s research focuses on the development of novel optimization methods and their application to solve complex decision-making problems in healthcare, medicine, sustainability, and sports. He has over 100 publications and his research has been featured by CNN, ABC, CBC, ESPN, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Boston Globe, and World Economic Forum. He has been an advisor to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Ontario Ministry of Health, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Professor Chan received his BSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of British Columbia, and his PhD in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Professor Chan was an Associate at McKinsey & Company, where he advised companies in the fields of medical device technology, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, and energy on issues of strategy, organization, technology, and operations.
Kristina Öhrvall
Assistant Vice-President, Research Serviceskristina.ohrvall@utoronto.ca
Kristina Öhrvall leads U of T’s Research Services Office (RSO), which supports researchers across the research funding lifecycle. She works with academic and administrative leaders across the University to strengthen research services and advance U of T’s research mission.
RSO comprises three teams: Agency & Foundation Funding, Institutional Initiatives, and Research Development & International. Together, they support a broad range of external and internal funding opportunities, major institutional initiatives, international research, and research development activities.
Kristina brings more than two decades of experience in university research administration. Prior to joining U of T, she served as Assistant Vice-President (Research Development) at McGill University, where she led a research support portfolio encompassing major funding programs, research infrastructure, and strategic initiatives. Her experience also includes research policy and governance, research performance and analysis, and the development of institutional processes and services to support researchers.
Trained as an environmental engineer, Kristina holds a Master of Science from Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and is a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.
Barbara Fallon
Associate Vice-President, Researchbarbara.fallon@utoronto.ca
The Associate Vice-President, Research reports to the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives and has an integral role in furthering the strategic goals of the University including working with Academic Divisions to define and track quantitative measures, further developing our culture of excellence in research and resourcing and supporting major team grants that benefit teams of faculty members. Barbara Fallon holds a Canada Research Chair in Child Welfare at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Her research focuses on the collection and sharing of reliable, valid national and provincial data to provide an evidence-based understanding of the trajectories of children and families in the child welfare system. Her other research interests include comparisons of child protection systems and the contribution of worker and organizational characteristics to child welfare decision making. Dr. Fallon’s transdisciplinary work, including as one of the co-leads of the Fraser Mustard Institute of Human Development Policy Bench, disseminates critical information to promote optimal child health and well-being.
Stephannie Roy
Executive Director, Strategy and Office of the Vice-Presidentstephannie.roy@utoronto.ca
Stephannie Roy leads the management of the Office of Vice-President and activities that advance and celebrate the excellence of U of T's researchers and innovators. She oversees the Strategic Engagement team with responsibility for the institutional research honours and awards strategy, the VPRI Annual Report, announcements and events, management of Vice-Presidential standing committees, communications and marketing, and collaborations with the Vice-Presidential portfolios and the President's Office. In previous roles in VPRI and in the Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty and Academic Life, Stephannie lead a number of important institutional projects including the Alumni Impact Survey, analysis for the Speaking Up employee engagement surveys and the implementation of 2015 policy changes for teaching-stream and pre-tenure faculty. Joining the U of T community in 1996, Stephannie holds a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education from OISE and conducted post-doctoral research at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education examining the production, transmission and reception of health messages in the news media.
Vince Tropepe
Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight & Complianceavp.roc@utoronto.ca
Professor Vince Tropepe oversees the Research Oversight & Compliance Office (ROCO) and provides academic leadership in the areas of research oversight and compliance, including human and animal research ethics, environmental health and safety, and research financial reporting and audit. The role of research oversight and compliance is to ensure that the University adheres to all research-related ethical, legal and financial reporting requirements so that the University’s world class researchers can conduct their work in an ethical, safe and responsible environment. In addition, Professor Tropepe coordinates the University’s internal processes pertaining to allegations of research misconduct and he works closely with the academic divisions to increase awareness of the importance of research integrity and the responsible conduct of research.
Professor Tropepe completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (U of T) and postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT in Cambridge MA. His research focuses on the molecular and cellular underpinnings of nerve cell production (neurogenesis) in the brain and retina, a critical biological process for development, plasticity and regeneration in the nervous system. Professor Tropepe is a member of the Vision Science Research Program at U of T, and a scientist of the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He has contributed to advancing evidence-based research policy development in the areas of biosafety and the use of genetically modified research organisms in academia with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Professor Tropepe is a tenured Professor in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science and cross-appointed to the Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
